Amazon Web Services’ new computer Snowcone is almost indestructible and as light as a laptop

Adding to the rapidly expanding family of Amazon Web Services (AWS) devices is a new computer that will help customers add more data to the cloud storage ecosystem. The new Snowcone device will allow users to process data on-premise before it is transferred to the Amazon data centres and servers. This data is transferred, after being processed, either physically (with an e-ink label) or via the Internet.

The new computer is shaped like a box that’s 23cm x 15cm x 8cm and weighs 2.1 kg. That’s approximately how much a 15-inch laptop weighs. It is also ‘ruggedized’ following strict ruggedization standards (ISTA-3A, ASTM D4169, and MIL-STD-810G) to protect against free-fall shock and operational vibration.

The Snowcone is dust-tight and water resistant (meeting the IP65 International Protection Marking IEC standard) thanks to its smart design, thick bumpers and ample shock absorbing material. Inside the Snowcone are two processors, which could be Gravitron, 4GB RAM, 8TB storage, two USB Type-C connectors and two Ethernet ports.

You can buy the Snowcone only in North America for now and is meant for people looking for what Amazon describes as an IoT hub, data aggregation point and an application monitor or a lightweight analytics engine.

The first five days of on-premise use is included under the $60 service fee, post that it’s $5 a day. A lost device will draw a fee of $2,000. Any data transferred to Amazon S3 is free, transferring it out for cloud backup will cost $30/TB.